This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting.
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Monday, September 30, 2013

Nicole Sandler interviewed Dr. Helen Caldicott this morning about what's going on at Fukushima. She tells Sandler Units 1, 2 and 3 have indeed melted down, possibly through the steel core and into the earth, and that reactor No. 4 is "on a knife edge." She says the nuclear power industry is reluctant to help because they don't want people to know just how bad it is.

“Knowledge and liberty are so prevalent in this country, that I do not believe that the United States would ever be disposed to establish one religious sect, and lay all others under legal disabilities. But as we know not what may take place hereafter, and any such test would be exceedingly injurious to the rights of free citizens, I cannot think it altogether superfluous to have added a clause, which secures us from the possibility of such oppression.”
~Oliver Wolcott, Connecticut Ratifying Convention, 9 January 1788

I want to bring to your attention to an updated analysis we're releasing that shows there have been nearly two mass shootings per month in the United States between January 2009 and September 2013. The survey can be found here.

Using FBI data and media reports, our report describes the more than 90 mass shootings that have occurred in this nearly five-year period. The FBI defines a "mass shooting" as any incident where at least four people were murdered with a gun. The survey's findings reveal a different portrait of mass shootings in America than conventional wisdom and previous media coverage might suggest:

Mass shootings represent a small share of total U.S. firearm homicides. Less than 1 percent of gun murder victims recorded by the FBI in 2010 were killed in incidents with four or more victims.

Military-style assault weapons or high-capacity magazines were used in at least 15 percent of the incidents. These incidents resulted in an average of 151 percent more people shot and 63 percent more deaths than in other incidents.

There is a strong connection between mass shooting incidents and domestic or family violence. In at least 57 percent of the cases, the shooter killed a current or former spouse or intimate partner or other family member.

Contrary to rhetoric, gun-free zones are not the problem. In all, 67 percent of mass shooting incidents took place wholly in private residences, while no more than 15 percent took place entirely in public places that were so-called "gun-free zones."

Those who serve and protect us are frequently the victims of mass shootings. In 14 percent of the shootings, law enforcement or military officers were targeted in the shooting or killed or injured responding

Top officials with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
are warning Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Wisconsin Manufacturers &
Commerce and others that they are misusing a monthly index produced by
its top economists.

Walker in recent speeches has been touting figures from the “Philly
Fed,” claiming they show Wisconsin’s economy as No. 2 in the nation. WMC
has been using the same number in a series of advertising buys, thanking Walker for putting the state on the road to prosperity.

But officials with the Philly Fed, who have been following
the situation in Wisconsin, issued a statement Friday saying it’s a
misreading of their "Coincident Indexes" to try and compare one state to another.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis
Friday. The 2,000-page report of Working Group I's fifth assessment
(AR5) since 1990 makes it clear that those who have denied and continue
to deny that human-caused global warming is happening have accomplished
just one thing in their lying attacks on science: slowed attempts to do
something about the climate crisis. Scientists who reviewed a boat-load
of peer-reviewed journal articles for the IPCC assessment raised their level of certainty that humans are causing global warming from the 90 percent of the fourth assessment published in 2007 to 95 percent now:

In their starkest warning yet, following nearly seven years
of new research on the climate, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) said it was "unequivocal" and that even if the world
begins to moderate greenhouse gas emissions, warming is likely to cross
the critical threshold of 2C by the end of this century. That would have
serious consequences, including sea level rises, heatwaves and changes
to rainfall meaning dry regions get less and already wet areas receive
more.

In response to the report, the US secretary of state, John Kerry,
said in a statement: "This is yet another wakeup call: those who deny
the science or choose excuses over action are playing with fire."

For those of you old enough to remember - back when we shared our phone lines with neighbors? Pick up the phone and you might be listening in on a next door neighbor. Private lines were prohibitively expensive for the middle class customer.Now we're back to party lines - and we have quite a few people sharing with us.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Some employers are cutting hours and cutting benefits to their employees, crying about the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and the employees buy it, even though there's actual proof that the new health care system is resulting in lower costs.

You're probably not going to be hearing Republicans saying anything about this news in the debate over shutting down government to kill Obamacare.

Health-law provisions taking effect next year could save
U.S. employers billions of dollars in expenses now paid for workers who
continue medical coverage after they leave the company, benefits experts
say.

Insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act are
expected to all but replace COBRA coverage in which ex-employees and
dependents can remain on the company plan if they pay the premiums.
[...]

The average COBRA member cost his former employer 54 percent
more—$3,800—than the average active worker, continuing a long-term
trend, according to a 2009 survey by newsletter Spencer’s Benefits
Reports. At one company in five, COBRA participants cost more than twice
as much as active workers

I've felt, for a long time, that college athletes should be paid at schools where the university makes money off of the kids. And on top of it, we often build huge, multimillion dollar stadiums for the schools with public financing (read: taxes).

During Saturday's college football games, 28 players at the
University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, and Northwestern University wore
wristbands marked with "APU"—short for All Players United—as part of a movement
calling for NCAA reform, including efforts to minimize brain trauma and
care for players who sustain brain injuries, as well as more money in
scholarship aid for athletes.
This didn't sit well with Iowa State University Athletic Director Jamie Pollard, who is making $900,000 this year thanks in large part to the sacrifices of the Cyclones' student-athletes (that figure factors in a one-time retention payment of $400,000 he got for sticking around for eight years). He went on a Twitter rant yesterday afternoon calling out protesters:

Yet to hear one realistic plan how to pay players without
eliminating all other sports. Value of Education versus Arena FB or D
League.
— Jamie Pollard (@IASTATEAD) September 25, 2013

Ask a student body member with thousands of dollars of debt at
graduation how they feel about a student-athlete saying they should be
paid?
— Jamie Pollard (@IASTATEAD) September 25, 2013